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Image

Hans Sebald Beham

The Prodigal Son

Description

Maker

Hans Sebald Beham (German, 1500-1550), designer

Title

The Prodigal Son

Year

1540

Medium

  • engraving

Materials/Techniques

Techniques

  • engraving

Materials

engraving

Credit / Object Number

Credit

Gift of the Fazzano Brothers

Object Number

84.198.624

Type

  • Prints

Projects & Publications

Publications

  • Books

The Brilliant Line: Following the Early Modern Engraver, 1480-1650

Renaissance engravings are objects of exquisite beauty and incomparable intricacy that are composed entirely of lines. Artists began using this intaglio process in Europe as early as 1430. This captivating catalogue focuses on the height of the medium, from 1480 to 1650, when engravers made dramatic and rapid visual changes to engraving technique as they responded to the demands of reproducing artworks in other media. The Brilliant Line follows these visual transformations and offers new insight into the special inventiveness and technical virtuosity of Renaissance and Baroque (Early Modern) engravers. The three essays discuss how engraving’s restrictive materials and the physical process of engraving informed its visual language; the context for the spread of particular engraving styles throughout Europe; and the interests, knowledge, and skills that Renaissance viewers applied when viewing and comparing engravings by style or school.

Related Objects

Related Objects

Hans Sebald Beham

The Prodigal Son with the Swine

Hans Sebald Beham

Departure of the Prodigal Son

Hans Sebald Beham

The Prodigal Son Wasting his Fortune

Hans Sebald Beham

The Return of the Prodigal Son

More objects +

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Tombstone

Hans Sebald Beham (German, 1500-1550), designer
The Prodigal Son, 1540
engraving
Gift of the Fazzano Brothers 84.198.624

To request new photography, please send an email to imagerequest@risd.edu and include your name and the object's accession number.

Feedback

We view our online collection as a living documents, and our records are frequently revised and enhanced. If you have additional information or have spotted an error, please send feedback to curatorial@risd.edu.

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